Roger Bothwell

Mandy, the family’s precious black lab, bounded into the house and startled everyone with the sight of light coming out of her mouth.  It was amazing.  She had real light originating from her mouth.  It was really spooky, but just as suddenly she dashed outside again but this time with the family close behind.  After all this was just too weird.  What they saw next was amazing.  She was running around the yard snapping at fireflies and catching them.  The light was the phosphorescent material left on her teeth from her strange activity.

Light coming out of someone’s mouth is a fascinating idea.  That is exactly what happened when Jesus was here.  The things He said.  The sermons He preached.  The stories He told all enlightened the world.  He was the light of the world.  He told us how much the Father cares.  He told us we can live forever if we will only accept His gift.

And we can do just what Jesus did.  Light can come from our mouths.  We can tell the world the Good News.  Just think: light coming out of our mouths!

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 30, 2002

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A neighbor down the street who has a professionally cared for lawn stopped to chat with another neighbor who has intensely labored to also have a beautiful lawn.  During the course of a short conversation the one from down the street told the hard working neighbor that his lawn was the wrong color green.

Can you imagine?  The wrong color green!!  How audacious!

Reality is that most likely several times a week we also say the wrong things to people and are too dumb to realize it.  However, sometimes we do know it.  As soon as it comes off the tongue, we know it.  Then begins the game of trying to politely back track.  It is well nigh impossible to do that.

In light of real truth known only to God, I wonder if we ever say anything that is on the mark.  God must shake His head and wonder at our audacity to speak with such confidence about so many things.  Maybe the only thing we really do know for sure is that we are sinners in need, and we have a wonderful Savior named Jesus Christ.  That is enough.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 27, 2000

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I spent the afternoon blowing leaves.  I highly recommend it if you are into watching patches of reds and yellows swirling about decorating your life.  I felt like I was Jackson Pollock splashing about getting ready for an exhibition. Truly nothing he ever did comes close to what I was doing.  My art was living for there was a breeze coming out of the north.  Obviously I was bright enough to blow the leaves southward.  Even still there were moments of futility if one’s purpose was to clear the yard.  But I had the reward of just watching them blow.  Everything we do in life doesn’t have to be practical.  Sometimes the reward is beauty. And that is enough.

I watched my dog sitting with her face to the wind staring at our mountain.  What was she thinking?  Was she merely enjoying the pleasure of the wind in her face or did she also see the beauty on the mountain?   Are we the only creatures to enjoy aesthetics?  I think she is beautiful.  What does she think of me?

The enjoyment of beauty is a wonderful gift from God.  Philosophers for millennia have sought to define it.  How is it that something beautiful to one is not so to another?  It is obvious that we see with our brains and not with our eyes.  Surely anyone who has ever been rescued from death thinks his or her rescuer is beautiful.  Thus Jesus, who rescued us from an eternity of death, is by far the most beautiful being in the Universe.  We will never tire of thinking of new ways to praise Him and new names we can call Him.

“How beautiful upon the mountain are the feet of him that brings glad tidings.” Isaiah 52:7

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On my way to school this evening I suddenly realized I had not eaten yet today and knowing I had to teach for four hours I figured I best put something inside.  Swinging into a fast food restaurant I sat down a table away from a man who appeared to be about fifty years old.   He opened his sandwich and also opened several little packets of salt.  Before eating his burger he literally blanketed it with salt until it was white.  I know the body needs salt but this was amazing.

I mentioned it in class a few minutes later and one of my students suggested since salt is a preservative the man only looked fifty.  He was probably ninety.  I suggested that while that might be true his blood pressure had to be 220 over 180.

Jesus loved to use metaphors and salt was one of His favorites.  He called us the salt of the earth.  (Matthew 5:13)  The implications are overwhelming.  Does this mean our task is to preserve the earth?  Just as the Lord promised to save Sodom if there were only ten righteous people there, could it be similar today regarding the entire world?   Perhaps to think so is the result of an overblown sense of self-importance.  Yet God has placed great value upon us.  Consider what He paid to redeem us.  The price was huge.

 

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 24, 2006

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One of the things I am involved with on a regular basis is the formation and development of curriculum.  This occurs every time I enter a classroom and close the door.  What happens in the next 50 minutes is up to me.  I have 50 minutes to pass on to my students something I believe is important.  If I am not there to do that I am not a good teacher.

So where do I get these things I think are important?  I get them the same place all of us get our values – for it is the common experience of all people to develop a personal value system.

Our values come from our experiences.  Does something produce in us pain or pleasure, joy or discouragement, love or apathy?  These personal reactions contribute to our sense of what is good or bad, which often becomes right or wrong.

Our values come from face worth such as the delight of a small child seeing a bunny vs. the delight of a torturer.   The delight of the torturer looks likes perversion in light of the purity of a child.

Our values come from viewing excellence.   Not only moral excellence but excellence in art, music, carpentry, athletic competition, being a good provider, long-term productivity vs. short-term satisfaction.

Every day we need to exam where we expend our energies.  Do our values only contribute to our personal needs or are they part of a broader fulfillment of the needs of everyone we will touch today?

James 3:13,  “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 30, 2006

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My mom is 91 years old and this weekend she moved to a nursing home. From the way she is reacting to her new surroundings I think so far it has been harder on me than her.  I hope it stays that way.  On my way out this evening I heard a resident down the hallway calling out to be taken home.

In the last part of Ecclesiastes Solomon addresses the issues of aging in not very encouraging tones.  In 12:1 he calls them “the evil days” and goes on to speak of strong men becoming feeble and rising at dawn with the birds but not being able to hear them sing.  In verse 5 he speaks of old people being afraid of heights and things on the street.  It reminded me of visiting elderly people and finding multiple locks on their doors.

All in all Solomon is not very optimistic about getting old.  He says in verses 6 & 7 the silver cord is broken and we return to dust and all of it was meaningless.  I’m sorry he never knew about Jesus because Jesus changes everything.  Jesus is hope.  Jesus is the “logos” which means He brings meaning to our lives.  In John 5:24 Jesus promises that we have crossed over from death to an abundant life.   He promises a life of continued development and continuingly expanding mental and moral powers.  We bring glory to our heavenly Father and according to Ephesians 2 become the recipients of lavish grace and gifts.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 30, 2006

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In a former issue of the New Yorker magazine there are two dogs talking to each other and the one dog says, “I actually know more commands than I respond to.”   At first I thought this was a canine version of Romans 7:15 where Paul says,  “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”   Then I realized it wasn’t.  Paul wanted to do what was right.  The difference is the dog knew but did not want to do it.

Finding one’s value system can be as simple as just saying I will do my best to keep the 10 commandments or it can be as complex as trying to figure out the rational for each of the commandments and expanding them as did Jesus that we would cover all of our human relations.   The Sermon on the Mount challenges us to go beyond the level of law to the level of principle.

When Jesus said hating my neighbor was synonymous with murdering my neighbor Jesus raised the bar way higher.  Jesus’ call to be perfect as God is perfect (Matt. 5:48) challenges us to keep reaching beyond ourselves to a standard we never thought we could reach.  How grand it would be to reach a level of life that kept all the principles of God’s word not because they are written in a book,  not because we want to please a divine power, not because we are rewarded extrinsically or intrinsically but merely because that’s the kind of person we are.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 30, 2006

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On my way home from school this evening an old Irving Berlin tune came out of my truck speaker.  I don’t think I ever really listened to the words before though I must have heard it a hundred times.  It was “I’m puttin’ all my eggs in one basket.”  It has become a favorite of jazz musicians and was even in an old Fred Astaire film.  When Fred Astaire turned 71 he stopped dancing professionally and gave the following reason.  “I don’t want to be the oldest performer in captivity. … I don’t want to look like a little old man dancing out there.”

But back to the “I’m puttin’ all my eggs in one basket.”   The words of course are about making a total commitment to someone, which got me thinking about our commitment to Jesus.   The mission school I lived at for six years in Africa had a medical dispensary.  People would come inside for their injections and pills and then stop at the mango tree outside to purchase charms from the local witch doctor.  When I asked them why they did this they would smile and tell me they were not putting all their eggs in one basket.

I would like to recommend that you join me and put all your eggs in Jesus’ basket.  It is an investment that will never fail.  It is guaranteed to provide an eternity of dividends.  Jesus urges us to “. . . provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, . . .” Luke 12:33

Written by Roger Bothwell  on August 10, 2006

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If you place two little girls in a room with only two moveable chairs the little girls will position the chairs so they can look face to face as they talk.  If you place two little boys in a room with only two moveable chairs the little boys will sit side by side not looking at each other as they talk.   The same pattern of behavior continues through adolescence and on into adulthood.  If men have a choice they are more likely to sit as if they were in a car rather than over a small dining table.

The art of good communication is a skill that involves not only the ability to articulate one’s thoughts but also includes being a good listener.  So often when someone is talking we are not listening to what they are saying but waiting for them to take a breath so we can interject our thoughts.  Listening to ourselves seems for many to be more interesting than listening to others.  What is discouraging about that is we seldom learn anything when we are talking.  After all what we are saying is what we already know.   Usually it is only via listening that we learn.

In I Kings 19 God spoke to Elijah in a still small voice.  It is His favorite form of communication.  It is difficult to hear a still small voice when we are holding forth.  No wonder in Psalm 46 God told us to be still and know Him.

Listening is an art.

Written by Roger Bothwell on Sept. 24, 2006

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On my way to our college I pass a very lovely home with a circular driveway.  It has an expansive beautiful green lawn tastefully decorated with maple and pine trees.  Today I noticed two ugly signs in the yard.  One at each end of the driveway saying, “No turns.”   Apparently on occasion people use their circular driveway to turn around.  I am sure it is annoying and sometimes people might drive on the grass.

I was reminded of the high school I attended.  Whenever a student would do something the faculty did not like they made a new rule prohibiting the offending behavior.  Thus we ended up with a host of nit-picky regulations that spoiled the everyday spirit of the school.

The people with the attractive home have spoiled their lovely lawn with permanent ugly signs.  Instead of being annoyed once in a while they now have perpetual unattractiveness.  Like my high school the cure was worse than the disease.  A classic line has survived the Viet Nam war.  A military officer said, “We have to destroy this village to save it.”

A recent poll reported almost 50% of Americans think the First Amendment to the constitution grants too much freedom.  The reason for this is fear generated last September 11.  A famous American once said, “Those who would exchange freedom for security.  Deserve neither.”

Galatians 5:1  “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”  The lesson is spiritual as well as national.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 28, 2002

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